DEFINITE READS

• eBay Buys Into College Entrepreneur’s Shopping Concept [Entrepreneurs' Adventures: Portfolio.com] Milo.com from Jack Abraham, on leave from Wharton, whose father built and sold comScore.
• Wharton Professor’s Winning Streak [Scaling Up: Forbes] — 67-year-old Leonard Lodish recently earned exits on two e-commerce sites, Diapers.com and, as noted above, Milo.com, for a total of some $575 million.
• Editorial: City Council: Let us in [It's our Money: Philly.com] — “For starters, we can’t understand why Council seems so behind the times on technology. The city’s inability to provide Internet access to the public during Council meetings – City Hall’s thick walls are apparently kryptonite to wi-fi – seems antiquated in the age of citizen blogging.There is also no way for the public to submit comments through Council’s website.”

MIGHT BE OF INTEREST

• Temple Prof. Calls WikiLeaker A “Cyber-Terrorist” [CBS] — Temple journalism Professor Chris Harper says so, following news that Center City startup XIPWIRE may be the lone U.S. payment merchant offering donations to the controversial nonprofit. [Full Disclosure: This author has a relationship with Harper]
• IT Beyond the Campus [Campus Technology] — “Drexel University positions itself as an outsourced IT department for smaller colleges.” H/T Keystone Edge
• Paying attention to how we pay for things [PhillyInc: Inquirer] — Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth Duke speaks at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
• Azavea wins crime-risk forecasting grant [Philadelphia Business Journal] — “Azavea said Monday it has been awarded a $216,000 Phase IIB Small Business Innovation Research grant by the National Science Foundation to develop advanced crime-risk forecasting capabilities for HunchLab, its Web-based, geographic crime data-analysis and early-warning software.”

GIVE A GLANCE

• Create Your Own Archive.org with Reed Tech Web Archiving [Read Write Web] A Horsham company, as Philly Tech News notes.
• 4 charged in high-tech hooker ring [Daily News] — They “ran a prostitution ring using laptops, prepaid credit cards, cell phones and digital cameras to post photos of girls looking for “dates” on Craigslist’s erotic-services section.”
• LevLane to represent Philadelphia Technology Park [Philadelphia Business Journal] — “LevLane, a Center City agency, will also handle media relations and “reputation management,”… Philadelphia Technology Park, which opened in September at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, is in the business of data backup for corporations in the region.”
• Paycheck mortgage [Philly Deals: Inquirer] In the second item of this column, Ami Kassar of “Plymouth Meeting-based loan-screener” MultiFunding calls for innovation in bank lending by allowing lenders “to take an ongoing percentage of the borrower’s [future] earnings until the obligation is paid off.”
• Virtual justice: Online game world meets real-world cops and courts [Inquirer] — “If someone steals your virtual Roger Paulino pants, is it considered a real theft? Is it possible for an avatar to rape another avatar? Can you be hauled to court on harassment charges for annoying a game character? When the virtual blends into the real, trying to distinguish one world from another can be mind-bending.” Featuring Joe Osbourne and Tim Quirino of Geekadelphia.

Early this week, Councilman Bill Green and five members of City Council introduced legislation that would change Philadelphia’s Charter to include a permanent Chief Information Officer.

As we reported, the bill would continue consolidation of the city’s Information Technology resources and it would require that the CIO develop annually a 5-year technology strategy, among other changes.

We spoke with Green on Monday to put into perspective the reason for the legislation and whether or not the bill represents concern for current Chief Technology Officer Allan Frank’s leadership. Green’s answers, after the jump.

Councilman Bill Green

This emphasis on reforming technology in city government – and ultimately, cutting city expenses by going paperless – has been your plan since your campaign [PDF]. What does this legislation mean for those ends?

Essentially, I’m trying to put in place a permanent structure that will make investment in technology and continual upgrade of our technology a permanent part of city government. I think Nutter has a great guy in [Chief Technology Officer Allan] Frank. I’d like to look at 5-year planning, with a specific emphasis on paperless government and improving efficiency of the workforce. Ultimately, my goal is to save $200 million a year, once the concept and plan are fully implemented. That will take 5 to 8 years.

What specifically does the bill bring to the city’s technology strategy?

We should constantly plan ahead, look at what’s available, look at how private industry does it, and make a long range plan as we implement technology. Specifically, [the Chief Information Officer] would have to submit a 5-year plan] to the Mayor and City Council a week after the budget address, so there can be consistency in planning with respect to technology. The plan must include productivity enhancements and how we’re going to eventually go paperless. In 1952 when they wrote the [Home Rule Charter [PDF]], no one imagined there would be a paperless system. Many other cities are doing a permanent CIO by ordinance, but we can’t do that here because of the Charter.

What do you think is the most important value of having the CIO create an annual technology plan?

If you force all future administrations to put together a 5-year plan, someone’s going to be thoughtful about it. You cant do long-term investments and you can’t achieve productivity increases unless you lay out something for the long-range.

How does this legislation differ from the executive order last year placing then CIO Allan Frank in the role of CTO on the Mayor’s cabinet?

It differs because [the CIO would] report to the Mayor, not Managing Director. It also moves all the employees into a single department with one budget. I understand why they chose to do the executive order, but department heads aren’t giving up their IT portion of budget easily.

Do you think CTO Allan Frank been as affective as he can be?

I’m not at all concerned with Frank, but I’d like to see us start implementing things. It’s been two years into the administration and we haven’t made any serious technology implementations. The sooner we invest the dollars, the sooner we’ll have the savings. The Mayor mayor could [appoint] another CTO, but I certainly would expect that he would choose Allan Frank.

The legislation would require the CIO to report directly to the Mayor and to create an annual IT strategic plan that includes productivity enhancements to help the city utilize paperless services. It also gives the CIO more oversight over city department technology appropriations.

“When they wrote the Charter in 1952, no one imagined there could be a paperless system,” Green told Technically Philly during a telephone interview this morning. “[The legislation would] make investment in and continual upgrade of our technology a permanent part of city government.”

Last July, Mayor Nutter issued an executive order to reorganize the city’s Division of Technology, placing then CIO Allan Frank in charge of the city’s entire IT system, including 520 employees. The new role, Chief Technology Officer, placed Frank on the mayoral cabinent.

Though Green backs the work Frank has been doing as CTO, he says he’d like to see some changes. Department heads aren’t easily giving up the IT portion of their budgets, he says, a problem his legislation could solve. Green says that it is paramount that the city starts addressing tech issues like these immediately. “It’s been two years into the administration and we haven’t made any serious technology implementations,” he says.

If the bill�backed by Councilmembers Blondell Reynolds Brown, Curtis Jones, Jr., Jack Kelly, W. Wilson Goode, Jr. and Maria Qui�ones-S�nchez�passes Council and the ballot referundum is approved by voters on May 18, the legisilation would immediately go into effect.

Green expects that Nutter would appoint Frank to the CIO position should the legislation pass.

If it wasn’t for the first Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit in June 2006, Innovation Philadelphia may not have found it’s niche in the creative industries.

President and CEO Kelly Lee says that it was the attendees of the inaugural event, hosted three years ago, who inspired the economic development organization to shift focus from the broad spectrum of technology-based businesses to creative one: art, design, web development, and others, in place of biotech and life sciences.

This year, Lee is spearheading the second of the summits, the well-marketed and polished 2009 Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit, which happens next month, October 5 to 6 at the Philadelphia Convention Center. [Full Disclosure: Technically Philly is a panelist for GCECS2009, "Creating a Culture of Entrepreneurial Journalism" on Oct. 6]

The summit focuses on economics, entrepreneurship, workforce, technologies and sustainability, five interdependent tracks that Lee says make up the creative economy and that cities and regions need to have a strategy for.

There are dozens of workshops, panels, roundtables and presentations that include innovators and leaders from across the globe and the Philly region, like keynotes from author Elizabeth Gilbert, entrepreneur Peter Shankman, game guru Jane McGonigal and global economic developer Randall Kempner.

From flyer to Web design, packed-schedule to text message update technology, there’s little doubt that the nonprofit has invested quite a bit in this year’s summit. The organization has even launched a series of glossy, high-def videos on the conference website this week that features local entrepreneurs and policy-makers who will attend. It certainly doesn’t appear that Innovation Philadelphia is taking GCECS2009 lightly.

But critics aren’t taking their words lightly, either, including high-profile members of our business and technology communities.

Lee, who’s been with Innovation Philadelphia since 2001, joined the org because she was interested in having a hand in shaping it. Before then, she worked as the regional director of economic and business development for PECO, which had a similar task of attracting businesses to the region.

But some question how much influence Innovation Philadelphia has had in doing that.

PhillyInc‘s Mike Armstrong, and more recently, IndyHall‘s Alex Hillman have criticized the organization’s impact. In May 2008 and on the precipice of losing funding, Armstrong said that if the group was cut off, he wouldn’t miss it. Hillman told readers of his blog yesterday why he declined to speak at the upcoming conference in a lengthy post on the issue.

Among other points, Hillman criticized the conference’s intentions, and it’s value to the community, comparing it with the workshops and events that are hosted at IndyHall and throughout the community for less cost. “When we, the grassroots, plan and execute an event,” he wrote, “we aren’t doing it to justify budget spending or even our existence.”

Criticism like that could be why the $225 face value has recently been supplemented with a $75 dollars “no frills” package that literally cuts the fat – attendees can skip meals and drinks but can attend all sessions and presentations for a third of the cost. That’s a lot of fat, given that the conference is charging $50-70 dollars for individual keynotes alone. There are also several free events that are completely open to the public, a networking mixer at National Mechanics, along with a Bloblive event and an “unconference” brown bag lunch, both at the Convention Center. A summit spokesperson says that the “no frills” package was planned, and not in response to the community.

Regardless of expectations, Lee has had a unique vantage point of the region’s creative industries as a member of Innovation Philadelphia’s executive staff since it launched in 2001. We spoke to her about the organization’s new focus, its accomplishments and its failures, the landscape of creative industries in the Philadelphia region, and what Philly brings to the table at this year’s Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

What is Innovation Philadelphia’s mission today? How is it funded?

Innovation Philadelphia is a nonprofit organization that supports for-profit creative- and technology-driven economic growth in the Philadelphia region. We are funded by private sources through sponsorships and events, federal grants and then through private foundations. [In the past] we’ve received city funding, but we haven’t received any for the past three years. We have received grants from the state, but we don’t have a current grant with the State of Pennsylvania.

Since former-Mayor John Street helped shape the Innovation Philadelphia initiative, what is your relationship with the Nutter administration?

We have a very strong relationship with the current administration. We work closely with the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy. Our mission is very much in line with current administration’s goals and initiatives. We’ve worked closely with the commerce department providing them with information and statistics for for-profit industries. We work closely with City Council Blondell Reynolds Brown, Councilman Green’s office and the Division of Technology.

Can you tell us some of Innovation Philadelphia’s accomplishments?

We were the first to release any type of statistical data on creative industries in this region with a report in January 2008 called Creative Footprint [PDF]. Innovation Philadelphia has a creative economy investment fund that goes to local creative industry businesses in the region and those investments have done very well and we’re very proud of them. There wasn’t an alphabet soup, so we created the Entrepreneur’s Resource Guide. We created Philly Creative Jobs, the only regional website for creative industry professionals that also has freelance positions. We also provide numerous programs and workshops.

Who have you funded?

Vuzit, Brown Partners, we were the original funders of DreamIT Ventures, and there’s others that you can read about on our website.

What are some of Innovation Philadelphia’s failures?

When we started in 2001, the organization could have done a better job of taking a look at the region and seeing what programs existed prior to starting. Some programs were [duplicates] of others. When we wanted to change our focus [from broad technology industries specifically to creative industries], we really looked at where there was a gap, a strong industry sector that had great potential for growth but didn’t have strong leadership. We chose to focus on creative industries. One thing we continue to strive to do is ensure that if we are providing services to the entrepreneurial community, that these are services needed by the entrepreneurial community.

Is your focus on bringing businesses into the city or into the region?

We are a regional organization, so we focus on helping creative industry business to start and grow in the Philadelphia region. There are a lot of attributes in the city that creative professionals love: having arts and culture in the city, all of the options that come with living in the city. But one of the cool things about the region is that the city is very accessible.

What can policy-makers do to bring business into the city itself?

The City of Philadelphia can always do things to make it a more appealing climate and that’s a very important strategy to this current administration.

Are you seeing an uptick in interest in the organization given the state of the economy?

We’ve been really busy because there are a lot of people within the creative industries who have been layed off and are now starting their own businesses and trying to freelance. A lot of people in this sector are using that opportunity to go solo, and those that do have jobs are doing their own things on the side.

An interesting article in the Inquirer recently that said that folks ages 20 to 29 face the highest rate of unemployment aside from teens. There’s a 14 percent rate of unemployment in the Philly metro area. I would argue that that’s a huge obstacle to your core mission.

Grads have it really tough because they don’t have experience to get that first job. What’s happening in Philadelphia is probably being mirrored elsewhere, but our stats are probably not as bad as most major metropolitan areas.

Though the conference has a global focus, what is the Philadelphia region’s role in the event?

We’re excited to be planing a summit to showcase all this cool stuff happening in our own backyard. Anyone who comes will be surprised by how many tech professionals that we actually have in the Philadelphia region. There’s really amazing projects and initiatives in this city and in this region.

Anything specific that you’re excited about coming from Philadelphia?

There’s a panel on animation, “Baby Pixars,” pulled together by a local designer named Ian Cross about what’s next in animation. [The technology track] keynote speaker [Jane McGonigal] was from this region. There’s a music panel with Mike Worth, who’s doing it on music technology and game music. Marci Wagman of MAD Dragon [Update: Wagman has pulled out of the conference due to a scheduling issue]. Comcast, Drexel University, a lot of people that are local and regional are participating in these sessions.

-30-

Every Friday, Technically Philly brings an interview with a leader or innovator in Philadelphia’s technology community. See others here.

Nothing says civic duty like a town hall meeting. Now it’s Philly tech’s turn.

City Chief Technology Officer Allan Frank and a handful of influential members of Philadelphia’s technology community will hold a public panel this month to discuss broadband policy, Digital Philadelphia and the city’s technology future.

The September 22 panel, hailed as One Web Day Philly‘s inaugural event, marks the first public discussion concerning Digital Philadelphia since Frank reached out to members of technology community earlier this year.

“With all the energy that’s gone into broadband expansion over the last few months because of the stimulus grant,” One Web Day Philly organizer Gwen Shaffer says, “we need to think about how we’re going to build on that momentum, and make sure there’s public input.”

Discussion will surround a pivotal question that Frank has been meek to respond to: If Philadelphia doesn’t receive federal broadband stimulus money, how will the city realize the Division of Technology’s Digital Philadelphia vision and the Nutter administration’s promise to expand Internet access in Philadelphia?

See our comprehensive coverage of Digital Philadelphia here.

Panel members will include Todd Wolfson of Media Mobilizing Project, whom many credit with convincing the city to submit a stimulus application and to develop a plan for Philadelphia’s technology future.

City Councilman Bill Green, an ardent support of technology innovation in Philadelphia, who recently made headlines on this site for his action-packed field trip to demonstrate dumpster RFID technology, will also speak.

The hard-to-reach Boathouse Communications chair and Network Acquisition representative Derek Pew will likely discuss his role in the acquisition of assets given up when Earthlink pulled out of the Wireless Philadelphia initiative last year.

Also invited is a representative of Clearwire Wireless, a WiMAX network carrier which plans to launch its fourth generation wireless broadband solution in the region later this year, as we reported in March. Comcast and Verizon reps are notably absent from the roster, but Shaffer says it’s not intended to be a diss.

Hoping to have an industry voice on the panel, Shaffer thought it would be educational to include Clearwire, a broadband company that is new to the market. Additionally, Comcast declined to participate with One Web Day Philly, Shaffer says, so she thought they wouldn’t be interested in the panel.

When she invited Philly’s largest cable operator to organizing meetings for One Web Day, a representative balked.

“We’ve got our plate full right now with what we believe will be effective and impactful broadband adoption and digital literacy programs,” a Comcast spokesperson told Shaffer in an e-mail statement, referring to its Digital Connectors broadband policy program announced in July.

The panel is being held to kick-off a week of technology celebration and service, when volunteers will train citizens at four Philadelphia Housing Authority developments. One Web Day Philly is the regional chapter of an annual, global event meant to highlight broadband policy issues.

“We thought of doing technology service projects because Philadelphia has an amazing number of people with [computer] skills in the city,” she says. “We also have a large percentage of the population that’s not online, that is on the ‘wrong side’ of the digital divide.”

Shaffer, who we interviewed for our Friday Q&A series about One Web, is still seeking volunteers. You can donate your time by signing up here.

City CTO Allan Frank announced his Digital Philadelphia vision and plans for a $100 million city information technology overhaul at Refresh Philly in May, as we reported.

After following Frank’s plan for three months leading up to the August 14 federal broadband stimulus deadline, Technically Philly published a comprehensive multimedia package on his Digital Philadelphia vision last month. Each member of the upcoming panel was contacted for the story.

All of that ended quickly.

Last week, we reported City Council created quite a buzz by unanimously passing legislation that would have made illegal the use of mobile devices while driving — unless using hands-free technology. That has some fuming.

PennDOT has called the bill� a violation of the state Motor Vehicle Code, saying cell-phone use legality cannot vary county to county, according to the Daily News.

On Monday, the state House approved legislation which included a provision that would withhold state funds from municipalities that were not in compliance with that vehicle code, according to a press release from the office of Rep. Dick Geist of Altoona, who introduced the provision.

There’s little doubt that’s a swipe at Philadelphia and the funds in question could be state gas tax, which gives Philadelphia in excess of $90 million per annum.

The state House Legislative committee struck down its own cell phone ban last week, but it did pass a bill that would give police the right to fine anyone who was driving carelessly due to mobile phone use. Careless, of course, would be determined by the police officer.

I reported from the Harrisburg state capital for a time, and if I only learned one thing, it’s that legislators outside of Southeastern Pennsylvania hate nothing more than the sway of Philadelphia. They don’t take kindly to our city passing its own laws that interfere with their politicking. That’s why Mayor Michael Nutter, with declining popularity, is going to figure out the political pitfalls before he moves ahead city council’s ban. He’s balked so far, but the bill could have new life if the Nutter administration thinks it can hold water — which it might not.

Don’t worry, though, as ITWorld reported, (h/t to WHYY) more than 20 cities will soon have access to a new TV broadcast format that would allow tube watching easier from the car.

1:07 p.m. 4/17/09, Update amended: Thanks Tom!

Oh man, are we glad to be transit riders today.

Philadelphia City Council has unanimously passed legislation that could make it illegal to use cell phones while driving motor vehicles, Technically Philly reports.

Citizens would be required to use hands-free headsets or other devices behind the wheel, according to a press release from councilmembers Bill Green, Bill Greenlee and Frank Rizzo.

�The passage of this legislation should send a very clear message: drivers need to put down their cell phones and pay attention to the road,� Councilman Bill Greenlee said in the statement. �Dialing a phone number or sending a text message while driving will no longer be tolerated in the City of Philadelphia.”

For the bill to be made into law, Mayor Michael Nutter will have to sign it, which he plans on doing, said administration spokesman Luke Butler. When he will hasn’t been established, but the city charter dictates the mayor has to sign or veto legislation within 10 days, Butler said.

The law would go into effect immediately after Nutter signs it, unless he asks for a grace period, said Seth Levi, a spokesman for Councilman Bill Green’s office. Fines would range from $150-$300, though first offenders could pay as little as $75 if paid within 10 days.

Last month, a Qunnipiac poll of Pennsylvania residents suggested that 85 percent of registered voters support a statewide ban.

A report earlier this year by the National Safety Council cited that driving while using a cell phone contributes to six percent of all driving accidents, the Associated Press reported in February.

In public testimony before City Council in March, Lieutenant Francis Healy of the Philadelphia Police Department spoke of the department’s support for the bill, comparing vehicle cell phone use to drunk driving and vouching as a witness to several cell phone related accidents.

�It�s obvious that the time has come to legislatively address the issue of driving while talking or texting on a cell phone. It is a safety issue plain and simple,” he said.

Emergency calls are exempt from the ban. New Jersey has had its version of a statewide cell phone ban for more than a year.

Staff writer Christopher Wink contributed to this report.